Current issue:
ABOUT BUSINESS - 09.2008
F-16 repairs in Poland
Soon all of Europe will be able to repait F-16 fighter planes in Poland. Their manufacturer, the American company Lockheed Martin, signed an agreement to create a cooperative Bureau of Service Planning for F-16s with the Polish Wojskowe Zakłady Lotnicze in Bydgoszcz. It will be the first service center of its kind for these airplanes in Europe. The next stage includes investing in equipment, technology and training technicians. Regular servicing of F-16s will start in three years. Hydraulic systems, fuel systems and chassis of these American \'falcons\' will be repaired in Bydgoszcz, among other things. It is worth mentioning that Poland bought 48 F-16 planes. In all, there are more than 4,100 of them, in 25 countries.
The most popular airlines
A ranking of the most popular airlines in Poland has been published. Polish LOT, which was once had an absolute monopoly, now carries 19.7% of travellers. Second and third place are occupied by discount airlines - Wizz Air (10.6%) and Ryanair (8.6%). Fourth place belongs to EasyJet (6.4%) and fifth to Lufthansa (also 6.4%). After these, there were British Airways (5.1%), Air France (3.8%), Swiss (3.3%) and KLM (3.1%). The Italian airline Alitalia finishes off the top ten at 2.9%. In spite of increasing fuel prices, competition on the market has kept these carriers\' ticket prices relatively low and attractive, and more and more foreign airlines are deciding to fly from Polish airports.
A boom in coal from Poland
There is no end in sight to the boom on the coal market. Within a year, the DJ US Coal Index rose as much as 105% and the stock value of the largest mining companies went up several hundred percent. Poland, which has plenty of coal, ought to take advantage of world prosperity, according to resource market experts. The largest deposits of brown coal in Europe lie in Poland. Plans to privatize Polish mines are continually postponed by the stock exchange, however. The earliest possible debut on the stock exchange will be that of the Bogdanek mine at the very end of 2008 or the beginning of 2009. Subsequent companies can make their appearances on the trading floor in the first quarter of next year. Polish mining is profitable, given prices like these. It needs investments amounting to around a dozen or so billion zloty.
We will be moguls of refrigerator production
The Korean company Daewoo wants to build a new refrigerator factory for 100 million zloty in either the Lubelskie or Świętokrzyskie voivodeship. If this investment is made successfully, Poland will become a mogul of refrigerator production, surpassing Italy in that regard. Daewoo needs more refrigerator factories in Poland, because it wants to increase exports to Ukraine and Russia. At the present time, not much is being said about the whole investment, but it has already been determined by the central office of Daewoo Electronics in South Korea. Daewoo already owns a factory of televisions, refrigerators and vaccuum cleaners in Pruszków. Other companies also manufacture appliances in Poland, such as Bosch and Siemens with their center in Łódü, the Italian Indesit (with a factory in Radomsko) and Whirlpool in Wrocław (refrigerators and dish washers). The value of the Polish home appliance market this year will amount to more than 4 billion zloty.
Construction is doing well
Construction in Poland is doing well, which is not only visible in statistics but also the stock market values of construction companies. Most of the two hundred largest Polish building firms expect very good results this year. After the first half of the year, there is already an 18% increase in building and installation production. Other sectors of the market have not experienced such high rates of growth. In addition, construction companies have shown improved profitability in their contracts. For instance, in Polimex it will increase in the next two or three years from 2.8% to 5%.
A Polish bank is the largest
According to data from Intelace Research, the largest bank in Central-Eastern Europe is PKO S.A., which has dethroned another Polish bank, PKO BP. This was made possible due to the absorption of part of the bank BPH at the end of last year, which increased the assets of this Warsaw bank to nearly 33 billion euro, and its own funds to nearly 4 billion euro. For the sake of comparison, the largest bank in Europe, the British Royal Bank of Scotland, possesses assets of more than 3 trillion euro. The former leader in the region, PKO BP, has fallen to third position, after the Czech bank Czeskoslovenska Obchodni Banka (CSOB).
The success of video games
Professional backing for the production of games and courses that train programmers, graphic designers and screenwriters for video games are appearing in Poland. Video games are currently the most dynamically developing entertainment sector. According to forecasts by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the value of the world video game market will increase from 42 billion dollars to more than 68 billion between 2007 and 2012. Institutions of higher learning and Krakowski Park Technologiczny have ideas about how to take advantage of that potential. They are investing around 10 million zloty to create the European Game Center. The result of the project will be visible as soon as the beginning of next year. Above all, the center will take on the task of bringing together the companies that operate in the gaming market, and increase their development through cooperation.
Poles are coming back to Poland
Polish emigrants are coming back to the country. This is good news for our economy, for a number of reasons - those who return will bring money with them, and spend it or invest it in Poland, and they will also pay taxes and social security here. The situation in the job market will also change, which means salaries will not keep increasing as rapidly as they have been up to now. And that means that the rate at which inflation increases will not be as rapid, too. How many Poles will come back? It is possible to speak of hundreds of thousands. The largest number of Poles went to Great Britain (600,000), Germany (40,000) and Ireland (200,000). But working in these countries is not as lucrative as it was even a year ago, because the exchange rates of the euro and pound have dropped. Today\'s wages in Poland (in certain professions, of course) are comparable to those in western countries of the European Union. That is why it is no surprise that some Polish companies, in particular construction firms, have started recruiting specialists abroad who are considering returning to Poland.
Super-Railways
The governments of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia want to merge their state freight railways. If they come to an agreement, a company will be established to carry 280 million tones of goods, which is only by 60 million less that the capacity of the European leader, DB Raillon. Such a company could actively compete for cargos transported from the east to the west and from the north to the south. At present, only 4 to 20 per cent of incomes of such companies come from this source. This is not much if we realize that two out of three railway routes leading from the east to the west of Europe run through Poland and Slovakia. The majority of goods are transported to the west by sea via Russian ports.
Poles invest in the East
Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria are increasingly tempting markets to Polish development companies. Huge demand for modern office and residential space in these countries and low labor costs guarantee quick returns on investments. Currently, the largest of the Polish investments are located in Kiev, where the Polish tycoon, J. W. Construction is operating. The Ukrainian capital is only the starting point of expansion in that country. The Polish company plans to build more housing estates in the Crimea. According to experts, to satisfy the demand in Kiev, two million square meters of residential space would have to be built per year. Ukraine also suffers from a lack of retail and warehouse space. Poles are, somehow, able to handle Ukrainian bureaucracy.
Polish banks in England
The British market is becoming increasingly attractive to Polish financial institutions. That is to be expected, since crowds of Polish immigrants earn millions of pounds along the Thames. Poles in Great Britain have their own restaurants, shops, pubs and periodicals. Now, Polish financial institutions are following in their footsteps. The first ones to do it were the British themselves, however. Offers for Poles have appeared in the largest banks - Barclays, HSBC, and NatWest, and British institutions have started looking for workers who speak fluent Polish. Now, Polish bankers have made a move to conquer the British market. In one day, two Polish banks opened branches in the center of London - PKO BP and mBank. Other Polish banks have also indicated that they plan to be present in Great Britain.
Polish export is doing well
The sales of Polish products abroad are increasing. Even though export dynamism will drop this year because of the worsening world economy, sale levels will still be quite high. Last year, Polish companies sold merchandise abroad that was worth more than 101.1 billion euros. Export was 15% higher compared to that in 2006. This growth in exports, according to experts, was brought on by Poland\'s accession into the European Union, because of which factories were built here with foreign capital; they add to the country\'s exports. Analysts say that this year the expansion of Polish companies in foreign markets has decreased slightly, but that this is nothing to worry about, because there are signals from Germany that its economy is improving. Polish companies will still be able to find end customers there. Polish trade with the East is also getting better. Last year, Polish exports to Russia increased by more than 25%, and import rose by only 7%.
Poland in fifth place
Poland has taken fifth place in a ranking by the European Commission regarding the competitiveness of the 14 largest economies of the European Union. The report was prepared by a team of economists under the direction of Prof. Michael Heise, the chief economist of the Allianz Group. The overall point total of the ranking was influenced by factors like economic growth, efficiency, the employment rate, and public debt. Poland moved from sixth place to fifth, and surpassed countries like Great Britain, Germany, and Spain. The Commission valued the efficiency of Polish enterprises, and the high dynamic of GDP growth. It was most pleased by the fact that as many as 11 of the 14 countries researched were developing at a faster rate than the American economy.
Soon all of Europe will be able to repait F-16 fighter planes in Poland. Their manufacturer, the American company Lockheed Martin, signed an agreement to create a cooperative Bureau of Service Planning for F-16s with the Polish Wojskowe Zakłady Lotnicze in Bydgoszcz. It will be the first service center of its kind for these airplanes in Europe. The next stage includes investing in equipment, technology and training technicians. Regular servicing of F-16s will start in three years. Hydraulic systems, fuel systems and chassis of these American \'falcons\' will be repaired in Bydgoszcz, among other things. It is worth mentioning that Poland bought 48 F-16 planes. In all, there are more than 4,100 of them, in 25 countries.
The most popular airlines
A ranking of the most popular airlines in Poland has been published. Polish LOT, which was once had an absolute monopoly, now carries 19.7% of travellers. Second and third place are occupied by discount airlines - Wizz Air (10.6%) and Ryanair (8.6%). Fourth place belongs to EasyJet (6.4%) and fifth to Lufthansa (also 6.4%). After these, there were British Airways (5.1%), Air France (3.8%), Swiss (3.3%) and KLM (3.1%). The Italian airline Alitalia finishes off the top ten at 2.9%. In spite of increasing fuel prices, competition on the market has kept these carriers\' ticket prices relatively low and attractive, and more and more foreign airlines are deciding to fly from Polish airports.
A boom in coal from Poland
There is no end in sight to the boom on the coal market. Within a year, the DJ US Coal Index rose as much as 105% and the stock value of the largest mining companies went up several hundred percent. Poland, which has plenty of coal, ought to take advantage of world prosperity, according to resource market experts. The largest deposits of brown coal in Europe lie in Poland. Plans to privatize Polish mines are continually postponed by the stock exchange, however. The earliest possible debut on the stock exchange will be that of the Bogdanek mine at the very end of 2008 or the beginning of 2009. Subsequent companies can make their appearances on the trading floor in the first quarter of next year. Polish mining is profitable, given prices like these. It needs investments amounting to around a dozen or so billion zloty.
We will be moguls of refrigerator production
The Korean company Daewoo wants to build a new refrigerator factory for 100 million zloty in either the Lubelskie or Świętokrzyskie voivodeship. If this investment is made successfully, Poland will become a mogul of refrigerator production, surpassing Italy in that regard. Daewoo needs more refrigerator factories in Poland, because it wants to increase exports to Ukraine and Russia. At the present time, not much is being said about the whole investment, but it has already been determined by the central office of Daewoo Electronics in South Korea. Daewoo already owns a factory of televisions, refrigerators and vaccuum cleaners in Pruszków. Other companies also manufacture appliances in Poland, such as Bosch and Siemens with their center in Łódü, the Italian Indesit (with a factory in Radomsko) and Whirlpool in Wrocław (refrigerators and dish washers). The value of the Polish home appliance market this year will amount to more than 4 billion zloty.
Construction is doing well
Construction in Poland is doing well, which is not only visible in statistics but also the stock market values of construction companies. Most of the two hundred largest Polish building firms expect very good results this year. After the first half of the year, there is already an 18% increase in building and installation production. Other sectors of the market have not experienced such high rates of growth. In addition, construction companies have shown improved profitability in their contracts. For instance, in Polimex it will increase in the next two or three years from 2.8% to 5%.
A Polish bank is the largest
According to data from Intelace Research, the largest bank in Central-Eastern Europe is PKO S.A., which has dethroned another Polish bank, PKO BP. This was made possible due to the absorption of part of the bank BPH at the end of last year, which increased the assets of this Warsaw bank to nearly 33 billion euro, and its own funds to nearly 4 billion euro. For the sake of comparison, the largest bank in Europe, the British Royal Bank of Scotland, possesses assets of more than 3 trillion euro. The former leader in the region, PKO BP, has fallen to third position, after the Czech bank Czeskoslovenska Obchodni Banka (CSOB).
The success of video games
Professional backing for the production of games and courses that train programmers, graphic designers and screenwriters for video games are appearing in Poland. Video games are currently the most dynamically developing entertainment sector. According to forecasts by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the value of the world video game market will increase from 42 billion dollars to more than 68 billion between 2007 and 2012. Institutions of higher learning and Krakowski Park Technologiczny have ideas about how to take advantage of that potential. They are investing around 10 million zloty to create the European Game Center. The result of the project will be visible as soon as the beginning of next year. Above all, the center will take on the task of bringing together the companies that operate in the gaming market, and increase their development through cooperation.
Poles are coming back to Poland
Polish emigrants are coming back to the country. This is good news for our economy, for a number of reasons - those who return will bring money with them, and spend it or invest it in Poland, and they will also pay taxes and social security here. The situation in the job market will also change, which means salaries will not keep increasing as rapidly as they have been up to now. And that means that the rate at which inflation increases will not be as rapid, too. How many Poles will come back? It is possible to speak of hundreds of thousands. The largest number of Poles went to Great Britain (600,000), Germany (40,000) and Ireland (200,000). But working in these countries is not as lucrative as it was even a year ago, because the exchange rates of the euro and pound have dropped. Today\'s wages in Poland (in certain professions, of course) are comparable to those in western countries of the European Union. That is why it is no surprise that some Polish companies, in particular construction firms, have started recruiting specialists abroad who are considering returning to Poland.
Super-Railways
The governments of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia want to merge their state freight railways. If they come to an agreement, a company will be established to carry 280 million tones of goods, which is only by 60 million less that the capacity of the European leader, DB Raillon. Such a company could actively compete for cargos transported from the east to the west and from the north to the south. At present, only 4 to 20 per cent of incomes of such companies come from this source. This is not much if we realize that two out of three railway routes leading from the east to the west of Europe run through Poland and Slovakia. The majority of goods are transported to the west by sea via Russian ports.
Poles invest in the East
Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria are increasingly tempting markets to Polish development companies. Huge demand for modern office and residential space in these countries and low labor costs guarantee quick returns on investments. Currently, the largest of the Polish investments are located in Kiev, where the Polish tycoon, J. W. Construction is operating. The Ukrainian capital is only the starting point of expansion in that country. The Polish company plans to build more housing estates in the Crimea. According to experts, to satisfy the demand in Kiev, two million square meters of residential space would have to be built per year. Ukraine also suffers from a lack of retail and warehouse space. Poles are, somehow, able to handle Ukrainian bureaucracy.
Polish banks in England
The British market is becoming increasingly attractive to Polish financial institutions. That is to be expected, since crowds of Polish immigrants earn millions of pounds along the Thames. Poles in Great Britain have their own restaurants, shops, pubs and periodicals. Now, Polish financial institutions are following in their footsteps. The first ones to do it were the British themselves, however. Offers for Poles have appeared in the largest banks - Barclays, HSBC, and NatWest, and British institutions have started looking for workers who speak fluent Polish. Now, Polish bankers have made a move to conquer the British market. In one day, two Polish banks opened branches in the center of London - PKO BP and mBank. Other Polish banks have also indicated that they plan to be present in Great Britain.
Polish export is doing well
The sales of Polish products abroad are increasing. Even though export dynamism will drop this year because of the worsening world economy, sale levels will still be quite high. Last year, Polish companies sold merchandise abroad that was worth more than 101.1 billion euros. Export was 15% higher compared to that in 2006. This growth in exports, according to experts, was brought on by Poland\'s accession into the European Union, because of which factories were built here with foreign capital; they add to the country\'s exports. Analysts say that this year the expansion of Polish companies in foreign markets has decreased slightly, but that this is nothing to worry about, because there are signals from Germany that its economy is improving. Polish companies will still be able to find end customers there. Polish trade with the East is also getting better. Last year, Polish exports to Russia increased by more than 25%, and import rose by only 7%.
Poland in fifth place
Poland has taken fifth place in a ranking by the European Commission regarding the competitiveness of the 14 largest economies of the European Union. The report was prepared by a team of economists under the direction of Prof. Michael Heise, the chief economist of the Allianz Group. The overall point total of the ranking was influenced by factors like economic growth, efficiency, the employment rate, and public debt. Poland moved from sixth place to fifth, and surpassed countries like Great Britain, Germany, and Spain. The Commission valued the efficiency of Polish enterprises, and the high dynamic of GDP growth. It was most pleased by the fact that as many as 11 of the 14 countries researched were developing at a faster rate than the American economy.
Found in our archive:
Information published at 4 September 2008
